A. M. 2149. A. C. 1855; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3495. A. C. 1916. GEN. CH. xxviii. 10-xxxvii. consequence of this vow; or 1 that he would perform | so far from being a stain upon his conduct, as if he were some signal service to him, and worship him with a more than ordinary devotion, consecrating (as it follows) the place where he then stood to his honour; offering him sacrifices, and giving him the tenth of all he had, to maintain this worship. Such is the sense of the vow; and the conditions relating to it seem to denote the secret wish and desire of his soul, and not any express stipulation with God. Man certainly cannot insist on terms with his Maker, but he may desire and humbly hope for a supply of his wants. More than this the patriarch does not expect; and less than this God never intended to give. Our heavenly Father knows that we have need of food to eat, and raiment to put on,' and it is a renunciation of our dependance upon his providential goodness not to ask them. To serve God for no consideration, but that of his own glory, is a notion that may well enough comport with our future exalted state, when we shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more,' and where our service will always be attended with vision; but while we are invested with these weak and frail bodies, they and their concerns will tenderly affect us, and God, who considers whereof we are made, expects no other than that they should. Considering then the circumstances that Jacob was in, leaving now his own, and going into a strange country, we need not much wonder that we find him solicitous for his daily bread. With his staff he passed over Jordan; and when he returned with a great retinue, the grateful acknowledgment which he makes upon that occasion, he expresses in these words: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant;' and a temper like this would never have neglected to pay its vows unto the Most High, had not the patriarch either met with obstructions, that made it not safe for him to go, or waited till God, who had all along conducted him hitherto, should direct him to go to the place appointed for such oblation, Before he came to that place indeed, we are told that he commanded his household, and all that were with him, to put away the strange gods that were among them.' And from hence it may be presumed, that there were several of his family (and possibly Rachel herself) addicted to idolatry, which he might connive at; but this is a mistake, which arises purely from the faultiness of our translation. There the word strange is supposed to refer to gods, and to be another name for idols: whereas the words (Elohei-han-necar) do properly signify the gods of the stranger that was among them,' that is, the gods of the Shechemites, whom they had taken captive, and brought into Jacob's family. This alters the sense of the words quite, and throws the charge of idolatry, not upon Jacob's household, but upon the strangers that were in it. The captives of Shechem, which his sons had taken, were now to be incorporated into his family, and put under new restrictions. Whatever singularities were in their dress or ornaments, or in the rites and usages of religion they had been accustomed to, these he intended to abrogate, and to reduce them all to the same purity of worship, and simplicity of life and manners, which he designed to keep up among them. And this is Patrick's Commentary. 2 Gen. xxxii. 10. Gen. xxxv. 2. a tame conniver at impiety, that we find him undertake the reformation even of strangers, as soon as they were come under his roof, with a spirit and resolution not unlike that of holy David: * ‹ Mine eyes look unto such as are faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me, and whoso leadeth a godly life, he shall be my servant.' Some writers have made it a question, how Jacob, upon his return home, should know where his brother Esau dwelt, and why he should send him so humble and submissive a message: but we can hardly imagine that Jacob should be so imprudent as to carry his wives, children, and substance into Canaan, without knowing whether he might safely venture thither. It is presumable, therefore, that while he rested at Gilead, he sent messengers to inquire, whether his father was alive; what condition he was in; how the people of the land were affected to him; and whether he might come and live with security near him. From these messengers he might learn the place of his brother's habitation; and when he found that he should meet with no obstruction, if he could but reconcile Esau to him, he very prudently sent to him likewise, with an intent if he found him inexorable, to bend his course another way. And indeed, if we consider what had passed between Esau and Jacob, before the latter went from home, we shall soon find reason enough why Jacob should send to him, before he adventured to come, and sit down with his substance near his father. Esau still expected to be his father's heir, especially as to his temporalities; and therefore if Jacob had returned home without Esau's knowledge, this, at their father's death, would have laid the foundation of a greater misunderstanding than ever: for Esau would then have thought, that his brother had been inveigling his father, and drawing a great part of his substance from him. He could never have imagined, that any person, in a state of servitude, could have acquired so large a fortune; and therefore when he came to see all that wealth, which he knew nothing of before, he must have concluded that he had defrauded him. It was not from pride or vanity, therefore, or to gratify an ostentatious humour, that Jacob sent his brother an account of his prosperous circumstances, but partly to recognise the goodness of providence, which had so prospered him, and partly to let him know, that he was not come to raise any contributions, either upon him, or the family; that he had brought his substance with him from Haran, and was not going into Canaan to do him any wrong. The whole design of this interview with Esau was to procure a firm reconciliation with him; and therefore it is no wonder that Jacob should make use of such terms as were most likely to ingratiate. He knew his brother's rugged and haughty temper, and considered him as a person, who, by his valour and conduct, had raised himself to a principality and dominion, whilst himself, for twenty years together, had lived in no better capacity than that of a servant; and therefore he might justly think, that this difference of appellations did not misbecome their different conditions of life. By the divine direction indeed, he was constituted Esau's lord; nor did he forego that prerogative by * Ps. ci. 8, 9. Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2. b. 8. A. M. 2149. A. C. 1855; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3495. A. C. 1916. GEN. CH. xxviii-xxxvii. calling himself Esau's servant. Lord and servant were no more then, than (what they are now) certain modes of civility, which passed between persons of good breeding, without ever adhering to their strict acceptation; and therefore Jacob might make his addresses to Esau in this manner, without any derogation to his spiritual preeminence, and confining himself to the bounds of nature, might reverence him as his elder brother. of Moses, knew any thing of: 3 Ye are not your own, for you are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.' Of all the adventures which happened to Jacob, that of his wrestling is deservedly reckoned one of the strangest, and has therefore been made a matter of doubt, whether it was a real event, or a vision only. Maimonides, and some other Hebrew, as well as Christian interpreters, But how jealous soever we may be of Jacob's honour, are of opinion, that all this was transacted only in Jacob's it is certain, that the Almighty approved of his conduct, imagination. They suppose, that the patriarch, being by himself interposing to bring about the desired recon- strongly possessed with the sense of the danger he was ciliation. Before this interview with his brother, and going to encounter, saw, in a vision, a man coming to while he lay under terrible apprehensions of his displea-him, and who, after some altercations, began to wrestle sure, 'the angels,' we are told, met him. They met him, that is, they showed themselves to him, to assure him of their custody; and by and by we see what followed; his brother Esau, contrary to his natural roughness, and avowed revenge, comes and treats him in a most friendly manner; which sudden change in Esau, we may reasonably suppose, was occasioned by one of those angels who appeared; and who, working upon his humours and fancy, sweetened him into a particular benignity of temper, so that Jacob, by his humble and submissive behaviour, gained his end. There is this peculiar hardship upon Jacob, that in the matter of Leah, he was perfectly imposed upon; that he had no design of having any communion with her; was contracted to her sister; and in all probability, had he enjoyed her first, would never have had concern with any other. But the misfortune was, that, in the other's nuptial night, he had carnal knowledge of her, and thereupon was induced to think, that he could not honestly leave her. Her sister Rachel was all this while (bating consummation) his lawful wife to whom he was contracted, to whom he was solemnly married; and therefore he could not in justice relinquish her neither. In this dilemma he was in a manner under a necessity of adhering to both; and as polygamy was not at that time interdicted, he thought he might do it without any violation of the laws of God. The only question is, whether he did not incur the sin of incest in so doing? And to this some Jewish doctors answer, that the prohibition of marriages, within such degrees of consanguinity, was restrained to the land of Canaan only; and that therefore it was not unlawful for Jacob in Haran to take two sisters, nor for Amram in Egypt to take his father's sister and to this purpose they observe farther, that in the Mosaic law itself, and particularly in the 20th chapter of Leviticus, where the sentence of excision is pronounced against incestuous marriages, there is no punishment assigned to him who shall marry two sisters; which, as they will have it, was, for the honour of Jacob, omitted. However this be, it is certain that there is no such toleration under the Christian dispensation; and therefore he who pretends to pronounce any thing upon a case so singular as this of our patriarch's is, should consider the different state of things, before the promulgation of the law, during the obligation of it, and since the commencement of the gospel; which undoubtedly prohibits both a plurality in wives, and consanguinity in marriages, and requires of its votaries the strictest chastity, from a consideration and motive which neither the law of nature, nor the law Gen. xxxii. 1. 'Young's Sermons, vol. 2. Sermon 6. : with him; that the conflict between them continued till break of day, when his antagonist, not able to get the better, desired to be gone, &c.; and that, as a proof that this vision was more than an ordinary dream, it seemed to him, that the angel touched his thigh; and in effect, as soon as he awoke, he found himself lame, probably by the force of his imagination. If this explication be admitted, the whole difficulty is at an end. It is natural, perhaps, for a man, under the apprehensions of a dreadful foe, to dream of fighting; and to dream, at the same time, that he comes off victorious, might be accounted an happy omen. But it must be confessed, that the analogy of the story, and more especially Jacob's lameness, which was consequent upon his conflict, will not suffer us to think that all this was only in a dream. The more general therefore, and indeed the more rational opinion is, that this wrestling was real, and that Jacob was actually awake, when engaged in it; but then the question is, who the person was that did encounter him? 56 Origen, I think, is a little singular, and no ways to be justified in his conceit, when he tells us, that the person with whom Jacob wrestled, was an evil angel, in allusion to which he thinks that the apostle grounds his exhortation: 5 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.' But that Jacob, who at this time was so immediately under the divine protection, should be submitted to the assault of a wicked angel; that he should merit the name of Israel, that is, the conqueror of God, for overcoming such an one, or call the place of combat Peniel, that is, the face of God, in commemoration of his conflict with such an one, is very absurd, if not an impious suggestion. Those who espouse this opinion, may possibly be led into it from a thought, that the person here contending with Jacob, was an enemy, and come with a malevolent intent against him; whereas nothing can be more evident, (especially by his blessing him before they parted,) that he came with a quite contrary design. Among the people of the East, from whence the Grecians came, and brought along with them several of their customs, wrestling was an exercise in great vogue, as highly conducive to the health and strength; and a common thing it was for two 6 31 Cor. vi. 19, 20. See Heidegger's Hist. Patriar. vol. 2. Essay 17. and Le : 1 This is the pre A. M. 2149. A. C. 1855; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3495. A. C. 1916. GEN. CH. xxviii. 10-xxxvii. friends, when they met together, to amuse and recreate blood, and called upon thee for aid.'* themselves in this way. The Jewish doctors, therefore, face to the prayer which Judith makes to God, in the seem to be much in the right, when they maintain, that apocryphal book that goes under her name. And indeed the person who contended with Jacob was a good angel; were there no other arguments to prove this book spuriand as their settled notion is, that those heavenly spirits ous, this one passage is enough, where we find the most sing every morning the praises of God, at the approach abominable massacre called a divine work, and perfidy, of day; so the request which his antagonist makes, 1 murder, and rapine, gilded over with the specious names Let me go, for the day breaketh,' shows him to be one of of zeal for God, and indignation against vice. The the angelic host, who had stayed his prefixed time, and abhorrence which Jacob expressed of the cruelty of his was now in haste to be gone, in order to join the heavenly sons, the sharpness of the reproach uttered against them, choir for the prophet Hosea, I think, has determined the remembrance of it even to the end of his life, and the the matter very plainly, when speaking of Jacob he tells care he took to recapitulate it upon his death-bed, give us, that he took his brother by the heel in the womb, us a much juster idea of it, than the writings of some of and by his strength he had power with God, yea he had the rabbins, who have undertaken, not only to excuse, power over the angel, and prevailed.' but even to commend it. As to the probability of the fact, however, we are not to suppose, that because Simeon and Levi are only mentioned, they therefore were the only persons who had any hand in this wicked exploit. They indeed are only mentioned, because being own brothers to Dinah, both by father and mother, and consequently more concerned to resent the injury done to her honour, they are made the chief contrivers and conductors of it; but it is reasonable to think, that the rest of Jacob's sons, who were old enough to bear arms, as well as the greatest part of the domestics, were engaged in the execution of it: because it is scarcely conceivable, how two men alone should be able to master a whole city, to slay all the men in it, and take all the women captives, who, upon this occasion, may be supposed more than sufficient to have overpowered them. How Jacob, who was an hundred years old, could be enabled to do all this, must be imputed to some invisible power that assisted him. An angel is here, in an extraordinary manner, sent to encounter him, and he, in an extraordinary manner, is enabled to withstand him. The whole scene is contrived to cure him of his uneasy fears; and a proper medium to do this was to let him see, that an old man might contest it even with an angel, and yet not be foiled; and the power, he might reasonably conclude, which assisted him in this (if the matter were to come to blows with his brother Esau) would so invigorate his little army of domestics, as to make them prevail and become victorious. It was a common custom among eastern nations, as appears from several passages in Scripture, to convey the knowledge of things by actions as well as words. To this purpose we find Zedekiah making him horns of iron,' thereby to portend victory to Ahab; and Elias, ordering Joash to strike the ground with arrows,' thence to presignify his triumph over the Syrians. Nay, even Hannibal himself, (as the historian tells us,) perceiving that his soldiers were not to be encouraged with words, made a public show for them, not so much to entertain their sight, as to give them an image and representation of their own condition. In like manner, we may suppose, that God made use of this expedient to cure Jacob of his dejection; and though Moses (who cannot be supposed to insert every thing) says nothing of the angels giving him this intimation, yet we find it in Josephus, that no sooner was the wrestling ended, but a voice called out to him, and said, "Comfort thyself in what thou hast done, for it is not a common adversary that thou hast foiled, but an angel of the Lord: take it for a presage, therefore, that thy posterity shall never fail, and that thou thyself shalt never be overcome." O Lord God of my father Simeon, to whom thou gavest a sword to take vengeance of the strangers, who loosened the girdle of a maid to defile her, and polluted her virginity to her reproach: Therefore thou gavest their rulers to be slain, so that they dyed their bed in blood, being deceived. Thou gavest their wives for a prey, and their daughters to be captives, and all their spoils to be divided among thy dear children, who were moved with thy zeal, and abhorred the pollution of their Nothing is more known and common in history, than to ascribe an action (especially in military affairs) to the chief commanders in it, how many under agents soever they may think proper to employ and we should deny Moses the common privilege of an historian, if we should account that a fault and omission in him, which, in other writers of the like nature (especially where they study brevity), is reputed a great beauty and perfection. Moses however is far from pleading his privilege in this respect; for having made mention of Simeon and Levi, as the principal leaders in the action, he then proceeds and tells us, that 10 the sons of Jacob,' meaning the rest of his sons who were of competent age (and with them very reasonably their attendants) came upon the slain, and spoiled the city, because they had defiled their sister.' It is very remarkable of the Jewish historian Josephus, that he gives us no manner of account of Reuben's incest, for fear that his recording so vile an action might leave some blot of infamy upon that patriarch and his posterity. But Moses has given us a better proof of his truth and integrity, in that he not only mentions this abomination once, but even in the benediction which his father gives Reuben, makes a remembrance and recital of it. And this he did, that he might give us a true account, why the right of inheritance, which was originally in him, came to be conferred on Joseph; and the kingdom, or right of dominion, which was forfeited by his transgression, came to be translated to the tribe of Judah. This he did, that he might furnish his countrymen with matter sufficient for their humiliation, who by this and many more instances of the like nature, are given to under A. M. 2149. A. C. 1855; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3495. A. C. 1916. GEN. CH. xxviii. 10-xxxvii. stand, that it was not their merit, but purely God's mercy, which advanced him to the honour of being his peculiar people; and this he did, that he might acquaint us all, how God was pleased to make these great, these elect heads and fathers, instances of human frailty and sin, in order to show, that there is nothing, even nothing in man, unless God by grace be with him; that of ourselves (as the apostle words it) we are not sufficient to do any thing, as of ourselves, but all our sufficiency is from God.' For the same reason, we may imagine it was, that Moses makes mention of Rachel's stealing away her father's gods, as a probable intimation, that she was not entirely cured of the idolatrous superstition of the country from whence she came. The Jewish doctors are generally agreed, that the word teraphim, which we render gods, is not of Hebrew extraction. The Septuagint translates it sometimes an oracle, and sometimes vain idols; and several commentators will have it to be a word borrowed from the Egyptians, and to import the very same with their Serapis. The Jews indeed pretend, that this idol was the head of a first-born son, plucked off from the neck, and embalmed; under the tongue of which was fastened a golden plate, with the name of some false deity engraven upon it, which being placed in a niche, with lighted candles before it, gave vocal answers to such as came to consult it but others rather think, that it was the same with what the Persians call telephim, more generally known by the name of talismans, that is, images in human form of different sizes, and different metals, cast under certain constellations, with the figures of some planets and magical characters engraven upon them; whereas others are of opinion, that the teraphim which Rachel stole were the dii penates, or household gods of her father Laban, namely, the images of Noah, the restorer of mankind, and of Shem, the head of his family; and therefore they observe, that Laban, by way of distinction, calls them his gods, that is, the gods of his family. That these teraphim were statues, or images of a human shape and figure, is manifest from Michal's putting one of them into her husband's bed, when she favoured his escape: that at their first institution, their intent was innocent, to be emblems or representations only of some renowned ancestor, whose memory the family was desirous to perpetuate; but that, in process of time, they came to be looked upon as the lares or dii tutelares of the house, were made objects of religious adoration, and at length perverted to all the vile purposes of necromancy, a learned author, who has examined this matter to the full, has proved beyond exception. 3 -That he might not, by inquiring of them, gain intelligence which way it was that Jacob had taken his flight. The truth is, there seems to have been in Laban an odd mixture of religion. In his conversation with Abraham's steward, when he came to negotiate a match for Isaac, he seems to express a very devout sense of the being and providence of God; and yet, at his first coming up with Jacob, he seems to be chiefly solicitous for the loss of his gods, as he calls them, which were but dumb and senseless idols. In the treaty which he makes with Jacob, he invocates the God of Abraham, which is allowed to be the great God of heaven and earth; and yet we can hardly forbear thinking, that he must have believed a plurality of gods, in subordination to the supreme, by reason of his anxious concern for these images. Jacob, no doubt, during his abode with him, used all the interest he had in the family, to rectify his notions, and convince him of his error; but he was not able to prevail; and therefore some imagine, that Rachel stole away his idols, that she might remove the occasion of his superstitious worship, and hinder him from going on in his impiety. These idols, we may presume, were made of gold, or some very valuable substance; and therefore it may be supposed that she took them along with her, not only to destroy them, but to make herself a reparation likewise for the wrongs she had received from him; and whereof we find both the sisters making this complaint: 5 Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money.' But even supposing the worst of the case, that Rachel did take with her these idols, because she still retained an hankering after the religion of her ancestors; yet Jacob is not to be discommended for marrying one of his own family, who adhered to the true worship of God, though mixed with some superstitious customs, which he might easily reclaim in time, rather than any of the Canaanitish line, which was every day sinking more and more into idolatry; and for that idolatry, and other flagitious practices, were in process of time to undergo an utter excision: especially considering, that when he came into the land of Canaan, where he had full liberty of acting as he pleased, he made a thorough reformation in his family, and had all these little emblems of her former superstition taken from her and destroyed, The word dudaim, which we render a mandrakes, is 'Gen. xxxi. 14, 15. a Calmet in his Dictionary, gives us a description of this white, and somewhat rough; is two or three times as big again plant, as it is found in the French king's gardens.-Its root is as its stem, and always grows taper. Generally, at some distance from its upper part, it divides into two branches, which is the reason that this root has something of the figure of a man, whose of the root proceed a great number of small fibres, in several two thighs are represented by the two branches. From the sides places, which serve to imbibe the juice of the earth, for the nourishment of the plant. From the root there arises a round and smooth stem, of a pretty deep red; and at the top of the stem grow four branches, which spread at equal distances from each other. Every branch has five leaves, which are indented, of a dark green, and terminate in a point. From the centre of these branches proceeds another very straight and smooth stem, at the extremity of which grows a knob of about twenty-four fruits, round, and of a beautiful red; and within this fruit is a kind of nut, much of the figure with a lentil. This nut includes in it the seed of the A. M. 2149. A. C. 1855; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3495. A. C. 1916. GEN. CH. xxviii. 10-xxxvii. one of those terms, whose true signification the Jews, at | eye, smell, or taste, or as a restorative to nature, and this time, pretend not to understand. There is but one helpful to conception, any of these reasons are sufficient place more in Scripture, wherein it occurs, and that is in why Rachel should take such a fancy to them: and the 7th chapter of Canticles, wherein the bridegroom why she purchased them at so strange a rate, was chiefly invites his spouse to go with him into the fields: 'Come, occasioned by Leah's sullen reply, that she had taken my beloved, let us get up early to the vineyard, let us away her husband's affections from her,' which provoked see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grapes appear, the other, who, according to the established order of and the pomegranates bud forth. The mandrakes give succeeding to his bed, had certainly the property in him a smell; and at our gates are all manner of fruits, which that night, to resign him to her. I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.' Here we find it placed among the most delicious and pleasant fruits, the grape, the pomegranate, &c., and represented as very fragrant and odoriferous in its smell; but the mandrake, say some, is a stinking and ill scented fruit, of a bad taste, and a cold narcotic quality; and therefore they have rendered the word 'fine and lovely flowers; and some of them will have it to be the violet or jessamine, (which suit very well with the season of the year here mentioned ;) whilst others contend very strongly for the lily, which, in Syria, grew in the fields, and was of a most agreeable beauty and smell. That passage in Solomon's Song, however, will not suffer us to doubt but that it was a fruit, of some kind or other; and Ludolff,' in his History of Ethiopia, will needs have it to be what the Syrians call mauz, a fruit much about as big as a small cucumber, that hangs in clusters, sometimes to the number of forty upon the same stalk, and is, in figure and taste, not unlike the Indian fig. It is not to be doubted, indeed, but that the mandrake in Palestine is of a different kind to what we have in these climates. St Austin, who thought it a great curiosity to see one, tells us that it was very beautiful to the eye, and of a fragrant smell, but utterly insipid; so that he wonders what should make Rachel set so high a value upon it, unless it were its scarceness and rich scent. In the province of Pekin in China, we are informed, that there is a kind of mandrake so valuable, and when mixed in any liquor makes so rich a cordial, that a pound of its root (for in the root lies all the virtue) is worth thrice its weight in silver. It was a general opinion among the ancients, that there was a certain quality in the juice of mandrakes to excite amorous inclinations; and therefore they called them the apples of love, as the Hebrew word dod, from whence comes dodaim, is frequently set to signify love. Thus, whether we consider this fruit as pleasant to the ' B. 1. c. 17. plant, which dies and grows again every year, and has nothing valuable in it but the root, whose virtues are wonderful. Of this plant (as Dioscorides informs us) there are two sorts: one is black, and called the female mandrake, having leaves not unlike lettuce, though less and narrower, which spread upon the ground, and are of a very disagreeable scent. It bears something like services, which are pale, and of a strong smell, with kernels within, like those of a pea. It has two or three very large roots, twisted together, black without, but white within, and covered with a thick rind. The other sort, or the male mandrake, produces berries as big again as those of the female, of a good scent, and a colour not much unlike saffron. Its leaves are large, white, broad, and smooth, like the leaves of a beech tree, and its root resembles that of the female, but is much thicker and bigger, and the quality of them both is to stupify and make sleepy those that take them-B. 6. c. 61. (This plant, though once in great repute in medicine, is now deservedly deemed of none,-it is of no use in cases of barrenness, and is even dangerous to be eaten.) | Moses, however, only mentions this circumstance to let his reader know upon what occasion it was that Leah, after she had done child-bearing, as she thought, came to conceive again. It had been below the dignity of such a sacred historian as he is to take notice of such trivial matters, had there not been something of great consideration in them; and what could that be, but chiefly the birth of the blessed seed,' which was the object of the hopes of all pious people in these days? It is evident, from the conduct both of Rachel and her sister, that it was children they desired, and not merely the company of their husband; nor would their husband have ever been determined by their blind bargains, had it not been matter of pure indifference to him whether of their embraces he went to, so long as his family was but increased and multiplied. The That it was a very ancient custom, not only among the Hebrews, but with many other nations, and particu larly the Greeks and Romans, in the marriages both of their sons and daughters, and especially of the latter, for the parents to give with the bride and bridegroom, as part of the portion or dowry, a servant, to abide in their power and property, is a matter so plain, " from sundry examples, that it needs no contesting. great difficulty is, for what reason it was that these matrons of old were so very desirous that their husbands should have commerce with these their dotal maids, in case they had no children of their own: and for the solution of this we must observe, that according to the principles of the oldest philosophy, spirit is the universal, efficient cause in nature, but especially in generation, and in human generation most of all; so that a spiritual conception must, of necessity, precede and direct every bodily one, insomuch that there can be no corporeal conception without a spiritual one; but a spiritual there may be without a corporeal one, that is, when the matter or medium is not adapted to that purpose. Now, this position being laid down, it may be observed farther, * Patrick's Commentary. a In the tragedy of Euripides, which is called Iphigenia in Aulis, Clytemnestra is brought in, as preparing and hastening all things for the nuptials of her daughter, who, unknown to her, was devoted for a sacrifice, and addressing herself in this manner:-"I the bridemaid am come, but away ye and bring from the chariots those gifts which I am about to present with the girl; with expedition fetch them to the hall." Old Demænetus, in the Asinaria of Plautus, is told by his slave, "Thy spouse, who had more in her hand than you, brought a slave as a marriage gift." These servants among the Greeks were called or, from whence is derived the Latin verna; and by the Romans, dotales, receptitii, or receptitia. They had likewise the name of args given them, and their service was expressed by the word λargia, which signifies the service due from man to Almighty God; which is wont to be distinguished from any other sort of service, and denotes that such persons were entirely at their mistresscs' devotion.-Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. 1. Annotation 32. |